Palo Alto Police Bust Alleged Nordstrom Thiefs

Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

Palo Alto police arrested two people on suspicion of identity theft, a police officer said.

Officers were dispatched to a Nordstrom store at Stanford Shopping Center located at 180 El Camino Real Monday night on an unrelated police call when the store's loss prevention called their attention to a man or a woman in the store for suspicious activity, Officer Sean Downey said.

The female suspect first approached a cash register to return an unspecified item and received over $1,000 back, Downey said. Nordstrom's policy does not require a customer to have a receipt to make a return, Downey said.

The male suspect then approached another cash register to return an unspecified item but his transaction was denied because loss prevention flagged him for previous frauds at the store, Downey said.

As they were exiting the store police officers stopped the suspects and upon searching them and their silver Mercury Sedan, discovered stolen property including a credit card that was linked to 58-year-old woman from Pinole, Downey said. They were identified as San Francisco residents Jessica Reed, going under the fake name Tiffany Marie Dunson, 31, and Dwayne Marcel Ross, 38. Both were both booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose.

Reed was arrested on alleged possession of stolen property, possession of paraphernalia, identity theft, possession of controlled substance and burglary.

Dunson was arrested on alleged attempted burglary, possession of stolen property, two counts of identity theft and one count of violating post release community supervision.

An investigation is ongoing as there may be multiple victims, Downey said.